This invention relates generally to preflight systems that allow a print buyer to submit a print file for preflighting from a remote user interface. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for automatically correcting preflight defects and eliminating the need for print shop employee intervention.
Preflighting is the process of reviewing print information for errors or possible printing problems before actually printing the information. This process is important because a printing press can be very expensive to set up and run. Further, a print run may require hundreds of thousands of sheets of paper, special binding procedures, etc. If errors or problems in a print job are not caught before the printing job is completed, it can be very costly to reprint the job.
Print buyers who wish to have something printed may submit the print job in digital form to a print vendor (e.g., a printer with a printing press or a print broker who passes the item on to a printer with a printing press). In theory, this allows the print file containing the item to be easily preflighted by a preflight system through computer analysis, but this has not worked out in practice. For the purpose of further discussion herein, the terms “preflight system” shall include a computer system located at the print vendor having a memory for storing an operating system, print source application support files, print job files submitted by print buyers, and other data required to support operation of the preflight system. While the print vendor can preflight the print file, the print vendor generally cannot correct all of the errors that are detected. Instead, to correct most errors, the print vendor must either return the print file to the print buyer or obtain additional information from the print buyer. This can significantly delay printing of the item.
The print buyer, on the other hand, may not be aware of the need to preflight a print file before submitting it to a print vendor. Even if a print buyer is sophisticated enough to appreciate the need for preflighting, the preflighting process is still time consuming for the print buyer. The print buyer must obtain a preflighting program, preflight the print file, and correct any detected errors before submitting the print file to a print vendor. If the print buyer obtains the preflighting program criteria from a source other than the print vendor being used by the print buyer, then the preflighting may not recognize possible print errors that are specific to the print vendor. Accordingly, the print buyer must obtain preflighting criteria for each new print vendor it employs.
Conventional preflight systems generally handle certain errors in one of two ways. They either automatically correct the error or display a message to the user explaining the problem with the job and maybe some suggestions on corrective action. U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,641 to Crandall et al., published Oct. 5, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 6,414,755 to Bronstein et al., published Jul. 2, 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 6,608,697 to Schorr et al., published Aug. 19, 2003; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,801,333 to Weiss, published Oct. 5, 2004 disclose such conventional preflight systems. These mechanisms work well enough, however, they are insufficient to completely eliminate print shop employee intervention if the jobs submitted by the customer have problems that cannot be resolved either automatically or by a customer with limited prepress knowledge. For example, a customer that does not know how to find a font in their system is unlikely to be able to provide fonts missing from a submitted job.